Bucks Authority Sues To Force Contractor To Work On Pump

March 16, 1988|by HAL MARCOVITZ, The Morning Call

The construction company retained to build the Point Pleasant pumping station was sued by the Neshaminy Water Resources Authority yesterday, which asked Bucks County Court for an injunction ordering Lisbon Contractors Inc. back to work.

Tracy Carluccio, executive director of the NWRA, said the authority contended in the suit that Lisbon breached its contract by failing to show up for work Monday morning.

In addition, Carluccio said, the authority is seeking $20,000 in damages from the Danboro company. The executive director said the NWRA spent that amount to prepare the project for the arrival of the contractor.

Lisbon officials were unavailable for comment.

A hearing on the injunction request is set for 10 a.m. Monday before President Judge Isaac S. Garb. Carluccio said she would not expect any activity to occur at the construction site until after the court session.

"Everything is on hold at the pump site now," she said.

The company had been expected to arrive at the project site at 7 a.m. Monday to resume construction of the Point Pleasant pumping station, which had been idle since October.

Carluccio said the NWRA withdrew its security guards from the site and directed its project manager, Hill International of Willingboro, N.J., to be on site. Also on site was a project archaeologist retained by the authority to preserve prehistoric artifacts known to exist on the construction property.

About a hundred protesters also showed up Monday morning. They staged a demonstration for about two hours and barricaded the gates of the project with heavy timbers and stones.

The action brought by the NWRA represents an ironic twist of events for the authority. The agency is controlled by a board that is opposed to construction of the Point Pleasant project but is under court order to complete the facility. The anti-pumpboard now finds itself going to court seeking an order to compel a contractor to build the project.

Carluccio said Lisbon didn't show up at the site because the company contends it is owed $2.9 million for losses it expects to incur during the next 18 months due to rising labor and equipment costs. Also, Lisbon says it is owed funds as compensation for its inability to accept other work due to the demands of the pumping station construction.

She said Lisbon never indicated to the authority that it expected to receive that money until after the company failed to show up Monday in Point Pleasant.

According to Carluccio, Lisbon and the authority had been contesting a few costs which the company claimed it was owed. She said, though, that the NWRA was under the impression that Lisbon would go ahead with the work while those items were negotiated.

The items under contention included the company's claim that it was owed funds for the rental of a large crane; for legal fees it spent to enforce an injunction banning protests from the construction site; for fees owed to the sheriff's office, which serves court papers related to the project, and for administrative expenses for the project that ran from October to March.

Carluccio said the authority and Lisbon never agreed on a dollar figure for those items.

Bucks County Commissioner Andrew L. Warren said there is nothing the county can do to bring the two sides together.

"I'm probably as frustrated and as befuddled as the average person," said Warren. "I just hope we get it to the point where the contractor says he has a job to do and he'll do it."